


Once More The Battle Begins

by Krasimer



Series: Dreams of You 'Verse [6]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Falling In Love, I will always find you, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2014-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-25 18:34:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Krasimer/pseuds/Krasimer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some more things are happening, and they find Smaug.</p><p>Rescue the Rescuer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ignore That Secret, Lying in The Corner

Thorin had forgotten how much he liked waking up with Bilbo in his arms.

As Thomas and William, he liked it as well, but now that the few memories he had of Bilbo curled up next to him were coming back, he liked it much better.

It felt strange, though, to wake up to the sounds of what he automatically identified as family. Strange in a good way, like waking up to a bright Summer day in the middle of Winter. 

He slipped from the bed, quietly closing the door behind him so that Bilbo wouldn't wake up. With that accomplished, he headed towards the kitchen. There he found Frode, Blaise, and Oliver, the two older males busy cooking breakfast.

"Are you draining William's pantry again?"

Oliver looked over his shoulder, then down at the pan he was currently monitoring. "No. We gathered keys and instructions from everyone last night, retrieved food supplies this morning. Demetrius drove us around the city and helped us before he went unconscious again."

"He isn't really used to mornings..." Thomas muttered, noticing the bulky man asleep on the edge of the table for the first time.

Oliver hummed, leaving the stove for a minute as he crossed the room and pulled a cup off the table, rubbing an affectionate hand over his boyfriend's head. "I know. He also hasn't used vacation time in a long while, called in for a week off. He decided to stay here and help you figure it out."

There was a pause, then Oliver spoke again, "Ever loyal to our King."

"You still-"

"You're still the King." Oliver smiled, watching Frode scribble something out on his homework. "You died our King, you're reborn our King. We're still loyal." He scratched a spot on Demetrius's neck softly, the older man making a happy muttering noise in his sleep.

"I died with blood on my hands."

Rolling his eyes, Oliver turned to go back to the pan, noticing that Blaise had taken over so that he could speak to Thomas. "I think we all did. I'm not sure about Bilbo, but I died fighting to try and keep Moria. Balin and Oin did the same."

Thomas nodded, watching Frode as well. "What are we going to do here and now about this...We don't even know the creature's name, or where it came from. The only hope we had of knowing is in a hospital somewhere, and we can't find him."

"Not quite true."

Even Blaise turned to look, eyes wide as Frode talked for the first time all morning.  
Frode flushed a little as everyone stared at him, eyes focused intently on his papers. "I've been having these dreams. Uncle says he's had them too, he used to babysit me and I'd wake up in the middle of the night screaming."

"What were the dreams about?" Thomas pulled a chair out and sat next to the boy, frowning slightly. "Can you remember?"

"I..." Frode took a deep breath, eyes closing, one hand reaching up to tug on a curl of hair dangling in his face. "I used to dream about that creature. When it...When it got my parents, I thought at first that it was just another nightmare. Still feels like I'm going to wake up at any time and they'll be making me get up for school."

Another shaky breath and he opened his eyes again. "In the dreams, it called itself 'Precious' and then at other times it called someone else that. There were times it was referred to as Gollum."

"Gollum?" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "That's vaguely ominous sounding."

With an almost hysterical giggle, Frode nodded. "There were times that a different word came up, but for the most part it was a he and he was called Gollum."

A shuffling noise distracted Thomas, the source of which was a still tired William, clutching at the doorway and rubbing at his eyes. With a jaw-cracking yawn, he stumbled forward, nearly tripping.

Thomas caught him, guiding him to his vacated chair. "I take it there needs to be coffee involved?"

"Grmph."

Frode giggled, then poked his uncle's arm and went back to his homework.

As people slowly started gathering from around the house, Oliver went back to helping Blaise, the two of them dishing out pancakes and various other things. Once everyone had a setting at the table, Thomas turned to look at Bartholemew. 

"Looks like we are off an another adventure."

William mumbled something into his coffee, overlarge bathrobe slipping over his fingers and plumping up around his face. 

"Hmm? What was that, Lad?" Bartholemew raised an eyebrow. 

Pulling the mug away from his face, William sighed. "I said this one had better not end with an all out war that ends up with almost everyone in this room dead. Or a bloody dragon that wears gold and gems like armor."

"Even if he is on our side this time." Kaden shrugged, going back to using his brother as a pillow. His eyes were closed for only a second before soft snoring could be heard.

Thomas smiled, catching William's hand in his own. "I can only promise that I'll stay alive. I make no guarentees about the rest of these numskulls."

A knock on the door and Faran was up faster than anyone else, rushing to answer it. After a few minutes had passed, and he didn't come back, Thomas stood and pressed William back into his chair.

As he walked into the entry way, he watched his nephew as he stood at the door, talking animatedly at someone. Coming around the younger male's shoulder, Thomas stopped short at the door, jaw dropping when his sister raised an eyebrow at him.

"Should I be worried that you've holed up in some strange man's home, brother? Especially since you seem to have brought my sons with you, it might raise concerns." With a sly smile, his sister leaned in, looked past him and sighed. "Of course, my son seems fairly attached to the man's nephew, so I might forgive you if you've gotten him to act more like his actual age than just your heir."

"Davina..." Thomas closed his eyes for a second, trying to process all of the things his sister had just sped through in less than a minute.

(He forgot sometimes exactly where it was that Kaden had inherited it from.)

"In order, Davi." he cleared his throat, meeting her amused gaze. "His name is William Bernherdt. He is not some strange man, he is my partner. No, you should not be concerned, although if your sons keep tearing through the house and trying to knock people over, you might want to worry about them being skinned."

One elegently groomed eyebrow raised, Davina motioned for him to continue. "And...?"

"The nephew is named Frode. As far as I can tell, no one has a crush on anyone, and yes, Faran is acting his age now." Thomas cleared his throat, then turned and pulled Faran by the shoulder, the younger male a bright red color.

"As for William, come meet him. I make no promises about his mental state right now because he hasn't gotten enough caffeine in his system to wake up just yet."

Laughing, Davina followed the both of them into the house.

 

XxXxX

 

William blinked blearily, frowning as he watched Thomas walk back through the door to his kitchen.  
Twice.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that the second one was female, and was therefore not likely to be another Thomas. The actually-Thomas leaned down and kissed his temple, nuzzling his cheek for a moment before he stood up again and left a hand on William's shoulder.

"Davina, this is William Bernherdt."

The female-Thomas frowned, head tilted to the side as she appeared to contemplate the small man in front of her. A few seconds passed before she turned to Thomas and raised an eyebrow. "Is he the..."

She looked around at the group of people currently gathered around the table. When she started speaking again, her voice was lowered, and what she said seemed to almost knock Thomas on his ass.

"Is this to do with the dreams? Do you remember, brother?"

William's eyes snapped all the way open, hands frozen where he had started to lift his mug of coffee to his mouth.

After blinking at her a couple of times, Thomas dragged her into the other room. A second later, Bartholomew followed them, a frown on his face. With a noise, William stood slowly, a hand slightly outstretched towards the direction that Thomas had taken off in.

"Go with him, lad." grumbled Demetrius from where he leaned against Oliver. "He'll need yeh, if his sister did know."  
William took off after them.

 

Davina had Thomas in a chair, Bartholomew standing back a few feet but still at the ready to do damage control if it were to be needed. When William entered the room, Thomas tensed, as if he were trying to stand. With a quick hand on his shoulder, his sister pushed him back into the chair, then turned to see who had entered.

A soft smile formed on her face when she saw him. "My apologies for the scene I just caused, but I needed to speak with my  
brother."

With a soft growl, Thomas looked around her at William, stretching a hand towards him. For a moment, William felt like he had been dropped back into his life as Bilbo, the first night that he had been with Thorin and actually felt willing to give up his life as a bachelor for the King-without-his-throne.

Eventually he realized that Davina was trying to get his attention when she tapped his shoulder and pushed him forward with a hand in the small of his back. 

"Apparently," she grinned, eyes bright. "My brother won't answer anything until you're back in his arms."

Flushing bright red, William walked slowly over to Thomas, wrapping their hands together. "He does seem to be a bit ornery without me there." 

Thomas rolled his eyes.

Without warning, he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around William's waist, pulling the shorter man onto his lap and curling around him. "He is aware of what is happening, Davina. Perhaps you'd like to tell me why you are?"

"I've known for years." Davina shrugged, pulling a foot stool closer and setting herself down on it. "When Faran was born, followed by Kaden, I remembered. I just had this flash of seeing them as Fili and Kili. I remembered them as the dwarflings I gave birth to back then, as well as the children I gave birth to now. You didn't seem to remember, so I took my memories to Bartholomew. It turned out to be that he knew as well."

When everyone turned to him, Bartholomew shrugged. "I remembered when I was in high school. When..." he turned halfway to look back into the kitchen, then cleared his throat and met Thomas's eyes.

"Now that the entire group of us is aware the rest of us knows, can we please calm down and stop acting like we're all going to attack each other?" William dragged a hand through Thomas's hair, the bigger man almost purring beneath his touch. "Davina, do you know what's happening?"

Frowning, Davina shook her head, fiddling with her wedding ring. "I don't. I know what happened back then, but not what's going on now." she cleared her throat, frown deepening. "Why do you look familiar?"

"What do you mean?"

"WHO were you, William Bernherdt?" Davina took a step forward, hand coming to rest on William's cheek. "I don't...I can't place you. I didn't know you, not really. I never really..."

"You were Dis, yes?" William's mind was working faster now, the coffee finally kicking in. "You were Thorin's sister."

"I was." Pursing her lips, she breathed through her nose. "Who were you?"

"You and I met after the battle. After everything happened. At the time, everyone who hated me for some reason or another blamed me for Thorin's death. For the deaths of Fili and Kili, as well. For destroying the entire royal bloodline except for those who had managed not to be present for the battle." William looked at his feet, mind filling in the blank skin with thick curls for just a moment. "So many people blamed me."

Davina's face paled, jaw dropping as her eyes went wide and two words slipped out in one breath.

"Bilbo Baggins."

 

XxXxX

 

It wasn't everyday that Thomas felt the need to protect someone from his younger sister.

Of course, it also wasn't everyday when he had to look between the woman who had been his baby sister all those years ago as Dis and Thorin, then shift his gaze to the small man in his lap and think of him as Bilbo Baggins, the lover he had lost to pride and time.

Bilbo was currently tensed, muscles tight as he seemed to be preparing for some attack from Davina. 

Who was currently standing there with her hands on her hips and her mouth still gaping. Davina took a deep breath, then closed her eyes and nodded. "You were the best for him." she whispered, a smile stretching over her lips. "His dying words were about you and until that moment I had never heard my brother come close to poetry. It wasn't until he spoke about you, whispered your name as he died, that I understood the love he had for you. He wrote letters, left them in his boot so that they wouldn't get damaged."

"Dwarven clothing..." Bilbo frowned, a pleasing red coloring his cheeks. 

Davina laughed, nose scrunching up. "It was all made to be as warm and protective as possible. Boots were made to be water-tight. The letters were perfectly dry when we dressed him in funereal clothes. They were given to me because I was..."

"The last of his kin." 

"Exactly."

Thomas buried his face in William's neck, breathing in his slightly earthy scent. "You two are finishing each other's sentences. I always knew you two meeting would be a bad idea, you probably would have ganged up on me."

"The both of them would have terrorized you." Bartholomew spoke up finally. "Your sister and your Consort."

With that word spoken into the now calm air, William (He had finally calmed down, Gods Damn it, Bartholomew) tensed up again. 

"...Consort?"

Now Bartholomew's eyes were wide, and he cast a brief gaze as Davina, as if he were asking for help. "Y-Yeh would have been the royal consort if Thorin had survived. It was obvious to anyone what he felt for yeh."

Much like his younger brother, Bartholomew's accent grew thicker when he got nervous. If Thomas hadn't been worried how Bilbo was taking the news, he would have laughed at his cousin. As it currently stood, however, he had a hand around William's wrist as the smaller man shook softly. "William."

Bilbo was still shaking. "That's what I would have been? That's what I lost?"

"William."

"Lad..."

He still wasn't responding.

Thomas leaned up and pressed his nose into his boyfriend's neck. "Bilbo." he whispered, closing his eyes as he dredged up every moment he could remember thinking of him. Every memory of the man in his lap being even smaller and softer and not suited for the world he had been dragged into. Without hesitation, he curled their hands together, hoping that it would do something (Anything) for Bilbo.

"Bilbo."

Just like that, William unfroze, twisting in Thomas's lap and sighing happily. "Thorin?"

Chuckling, Thomas nodded. 

"Yeh're still technically his Consort, Lad." Bartholomew offered with a small shrug. "He's still technically King, after all."

"He is not Consort anymore." Thomas growled, frowning at his family members. "He is much more than that. He always has been, he always will be. And since we seem to be unable to not be alive, always is much more important than it used to be."

Muffled voice trickling across Thomas's throat, William shrugged.

"...What did he just say?" Davina raised an eyebrow. 

Bilbo lifted his head out of the crook of Thomas's neck, a confused look on his face. "I asked 'We got cemented in place by the Arkenstone. What got my nephew?' and I guess Thorin's beard just kind of...Muffled it."

A soft knock on the archway into the room made them all look up to see a nervous looking Frode. 

"Do you remember your ring, Uncle? The one you left to me." Frode shrugged, pulling a curl away from his face. "It kind of...Had the same effect. I guess whatever it was made out of did the same thing."

"As far as I can figure out," Bartholomew spoke up again. "The Arkenstone itself didn't like being pulled from the heart of our mountain. It attacked the people who pulled it from it's home. Where did the material for the ring come from? It might be the EXACT same thing."

Davina, still silent (Which was always nerve wracking) was looking between Thomas and William's faces. Every few seconds, her lips would move like she was trying to say something, but no sound every escaped her.

"Davina?" Thomas felt his eyebrow rise, Bilbo settling further into his lap. "What's wrong?"

"Why..." she took a deep breath, then nodded slowly. "Why does William's nephew look like the perfect mix between you two?"  
With barely a hitch in his breath, Bilbo stood up suddenly, almost leaping through the air to get out of Thomas's lap. "We are not going there right now, this discussion is not happening!"

With that, he escorted Frode out of the room.

Thomas's first eyebrow was joined by the second as he followed not too long after.

 

XxXxX

 

After he had managed to make Davina and Thomas stop looking at him like something was wrong, William got dressed and sat down next to Frode, both of them pulling on their shoes.

"So we're going to go find the guy who saved me?"

William shrugged, then nodded. "It's less a matter of finding him and more a matter of convincing the hospital to allow us into his room. Nicholas found him, we just need to go see him."

Frode nodded, then sat silently, waiting for his uncle to finish lacing up his shoes.

Thomas dropped down onto the step behind William, wrapping an arm around his waist. "Frode?"

"Hmm?"

"What were your parent's names when you were...Not you now?" Thomas shrugged, free hand moving in a vaguely confused gesture. "Back then."

"Primula and Drogo." 

William tensed up, shoulders shaking softly, frown marring his face. "There's a story in there that will be told another time, Thorin. It's not something that's important to what's happening now, and trust me when I say you'll want to hear it in private."

"You're going to get a backache from how often your shoulders are this tough today." His voice dropping to a murmur, Thomas pressed his nose into the space between William's shoulder blades. "It's my fault, I think."

"Just a little bit." William finally smiled, then stood up and pulled both of them with him. "Let's go see Smaug."

 

Everything was white, blindingly white and so boring that within the first few seconds, William felt like something inside of him was trying to tear it's way out.

He always felt like this in hospital rooms.

Ever since his parents had both slowly passed away in the boring white spaces, he couldn't stand hospitals. Returning to one now felt wrong, even if it was because they were locating someone who could help stop the monster chasing them through the dark.

"Hello William."

Turning back to look at the bed again, William smiled and cleared his throat. "Hello Smaug."

Smaug straightened up in the bed a little, pulling the blanket tighter around his waist, tucking the insanely patterned hospital clothing around himself a little more. With a grunt, he arched his back slightly as he reached for the cup of water on the side table, trying not to stretch out his left arm too far. "Hello little Bernherdt. Are you alright?"

Stepping forward, Frode nodded. "I'm fine."

"That is good." Smaug met Thomas's eyes, tilting his head. "Good Dwarf. You're holding onto him this time?"

"I have no plans to let go."

With a smile, Smaug chuckled. "Very well. Is everyone alright? I have been out of commission for a few days, slightly out of order on information. Is everyone still alive?"

"Yes. We've gathered everyone into one place, made sure to keep them all alive." William cleared his throat, dragging a couple of chairs closer to the bed. "We also have a couple of questions for you."

The former Dragon's eyes slid closed as he breathed in through his nose, smelling the air. "You have been attacked."

"Yes. At Bofur's, Bifur's, and Bombur's cafe." Thomas sat in a chair, an arm curled around the back of William's chair. "Otherwise known as Blaise, Byron and Buckley."

"The Ur family." Smaug whispered fondly. "I know of them."

Frode dropped into the last chair, fidgeting quietly. When everyone turned to look at him, he fixed his gaze on the wall, eyes closed as he muttered a 'Thank you' to the man in the bed.

With another smile, this one kinder, Smaug nodded once. "You are welcome, little Bernherdt. I will not stand for more death if I can prevent it."

Turning back to William and Thomas, he grinned, sharp teeth digging into his bottom lip. 

"You had some questions for me?"


	2. Were I to Know the Way

Demetrius was grateful for a reason to stay with Oliver for a week, even if the circumstances were horrible.

He snorted, re-wording that thought. The circumstances were more than horrible: A creature that had been thought to be long dead or ruined beyond movement. They were all human now, and no longer had the weaponry they'd been trained to use.

There was another thing.

Demetrius could remember the bite of metal in his hands, could remember the heft his war hammers gave when he used them. 

He remembered being Dwalin, and he remembered his training, but his life now had never had to use those sort of things. He had never learned how to break a man's arm in this life by simply tugging down sharply from a lower vantage point.

That was something else: They were actually taller now. 

The tricks he had used to fight in a much bigger-than-him world were useless now, because he was taller than the average man. 

A lot of what he had been taught and in turn had taught those in his care had to do with height and weight and physical strength.

And humans weren't nearly as strong as dwarves.

Grunting, he stretched his shoulders and sighed, watched as Oliver zoomed around the library, helped people and occasionally put books back onto their shelves. The smaller man looked ecstatic to be around all the books, an almost reverent look on his face as he ran his fingers over the spines and checked the edges for damage. Demetrius could still see Ori in there, could still place the younger dwarf within the need for knowledge in the human man, but it was more than just that.

Oliver was someone new, even when he was still Ori.

Demetrius thought for a moment, of a more recent redhead. After Ori but before Oliver. It had still been the same person, but he hadn't known at the time. He'd just known that he'd loved the younger man for all he was worth.

Dragged all over the world, they'd had a love story of epic proportions.

He'd been a Captain, owned a ship and everything. He'd also been a drunkard before the young man came along.  
Watching Oliver now, zipping around the library again, he smiled. Across from him, Frode rolled his eyes as he wrote an answer down for his math homework.

"Now you're just being silly, Dwalin." he grinned, "Silly and in love."

"Hush now, do yer work."

 

XxXxX

 

Ori grinned, watching Dwalin interacting with Frode.

"You really are good with children..." he muttered, then turned to the front desk with the pile of books in his arms. When he managed to get there, the woman who worked on his days off smiled at him. For a moment he couldn't remember her name, frowning when he saw that she wasn't wearing a nametag.

"Hello Oliver!" she chirped.

Ori grimaced, then smiled at her. There was a reason he never quite got along with his coworkers. He rarely saw them, but when he did, they were a few levels too cheerful and loud for his tastes. "Hello, Maddie was it?"

With a bouncy nod that made her hair fly everywhere around her head, she giggled. "You remembered my name!"

Biting his bottom lip, he hoped that she would think it was shyness that kept him quiet. Truthfully, she wore too much perfume and the less he spoke to her, the less he had to breathe it in. "Yes." he shrugged. "It's always good to remember coworkers names."

"So I was wondering..." she started, completely ignoring the pile of books he had set on the counter. 

'Oh no.' he thought.

Her fingers were twisting through her hair. "If you're free tonight, that is, would you like to go out to a movie with me?"

When he didn't answer, she readjusted her cleavage, hand trailing down to the necklace hanging between her breasts. "Or would you just like to go get coffee with me?"

"I..." he sighed, hands going up to cover his face. If he didn't see her, maybe she would stop existing. "You..."

"Aw! How cute! You're nervous!"

"No he ain't." came the gruff answer from behind Oliver. Relief flooded through him when Dwalin's hand came to rest on his shoulder. Frode had apparently also come over, was actually standing next to him with a hand on Oliver's elbow. "He also ain't interested."

Peeking out from beneath his fingers, Ori smiled into his palms at the face Maddie was making. It was somewhere between horror and anger, and as awful as it made him feel to realise it, it felt good to see that expression on her face.

Maddie tried to argue, but before she could speak, Frode did.

"They're my family. You aren't part of it."

Ori pulled his hands away from his face and relaxed back against Dwalin. "Could you please just check out the books I want? You're supposed to be doing your job, anyways."

"I totally checked with the other staff! You're supposed to be single."

With another sigh, he pushed the books towards her. "Just ring out my books or I'm doing it myself."

Pouting, Maddie grabbed them, frowning at the titles as she scanned each one. "You're supposed to be single." she muttered. "Not gay."

"Is my sexuality really your issue?" Ori raised an eyebrow. "Because I honestly don't think you're in my bedroom at night. Unless there's something Demetrius hasn't told me."

Dwalin laughed, turning away and hiding it behind a cough, the hand still on Ori's waist tightening it's grip.

"You're not supposed to try and break up a couple, you know. Quite rude, stupid, and ignorant." Frode added as they walked away, sticking his tongue out at her.

 

"Yeh best not tell yehr uncle yeh said that ta her. I will buy yeh somethin' to reward yeh for stickin' up fer us." Dwalin muttered as they went out the doors, smiling when Frode held out a fist, brushing his knuckles against the younger boy's. "Just our secret." 

"Uncle would have said the same thing." Frode murmured, struggling to zip his backpack shut as they walked. "Maybe not in the same way, but he wouldn't stand for her trying to split up a happy couple."

Ori held out his hands for the stack of books Dwalin had picked up and carted out the door the moment they were all checked out. The larger man held them out of his reach, smiling when Ori tried to reach them anyways.

"If I..." Frode muttered something, finally managing to close his bag. "If I had a crush on someone, do you think that uncle would be alright with it?"

"Most likely, unless the person you liked was too much older or abusive or something like that." Ori reassured him. "Is that why you were so defensive in there?"

Frode nodded, swinging his bag around to rest on his back. "It's someone I've had a crush on for a while, since before my parents..." he trailed off, voice sounding choked. "And I think uncle would be alright with it, he's met them before."

"What kind of before do yeh mean?" Dwalin asked, shifting the books in his hands as he reached over and unlocked the car. "As in before today, or before meanin'...Before?"

"...Both." Frode looked at the ground, then shrugged his bag back off to set it on the seat. With that, he slid into the car.

Ori hurried to his door, plopping down in his seat. Turning to face Frode, he smiled reassuringly. "Did your uncle approve of this person back then?"

"I think so. He tolerated him for a while, but then they spent time talking, then he became uncle's gardener...He followed me on an adventure to what seemed like the ends of the Earth. The visits became almost constant after a while."

"So yehr uncle is likely to approve o' him?"

Both Ori and Frode jumped, neither one of them having seen Dwalin enter the car.

"I think so."

"Well, that should be alright then!" Ori nodded, reaching back to pat Frode's head, mussing his hair slightly. He chuckled when the younger male grumbled and combed his fingers through it, trying to straighten out the already riotous curls.

Dwalin grinned at Ori, then leaned across the gap between their seats and kissed his cheek.

 

XxXxX

 

If he had to be truthful with himself, Demetrius would admit to being worried.

Ori was helping Frode with his homework, set up at the table with the rest of the group. Bartholemew and Thomas were in the kitchen with him, watching over the rest. Every once in a while, William would pop in, grab tea or a snack of some kind, then disappear back into the other room. Some of the conversation was easy, fast flowing words that resulted in smiles and uproarious laughter.

Some of it lead to Ori's current expression.

"You do realize," Thomas placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him from his thoughts "That this might not be the best way to relearn about his death? From what I understand, it was not a good way to die. Honorable, but awful."

"Same way yeh and yehr little nephew terrors went." Dwalin muttered, rolling his shoulder until it popped and Thomas removed his hand. 

Thomas shrugged, then leaned against the counter and watched William flutter around the room. He stopped near Frode and Ori for a moment, a quick one armed hug for his nephew and a plate of cheese and crackers for the other man. "Bit of a low blow, Dwalin."

"It is." he nodded, running a hand over the tattoos on his head. "Needed ta be said. Yehr are goin' ta try and tell me not to worry, just ta monitor the conversation." 

"I am, yes."

"Then ya need to do the same, my friend." Demetrius grinned at him, then shrugged. "If yer gonna tell me ta listen and make sure that nothin' untoward happens, then ya need to do the same an' make sure that yeh and yers are alright as well."

Laughing quietly, Thomas grinned back. "When did you start making sense?"

"When I started rememberin'." Demetrius nodded at William. "Yeh'd best be takin' care of him. Fierce little creature who fought fer yeh and got nothin' but yehr bullheaded stubborness in return."

Thomas's expression sobered. "Trust me, I plan on doing nothing but take care of him. Or giving it my best attempt, anyways. I'm well aware that I didn't always do the right thing when it came to the two of us."

Dwalin focused on his hand. "I'm tryin' ta do right by Ori. I'm aware it won't always work with us, but I don't wanna lose him ta my own idiocy."

The sound of someone clearing their throat made both Dwalin and Thomas turn around. Donald smiled pleasently at both of them, offering them both a mug of something warm and sweet smelling. "I'm glad to hear it. From what I can tell, you'll take as much care with my brother as you did last time. Just keep him from running into any caves with goblins and orcs, and you should be alright."

"You're a strange older brother." Thomas muttered, taking a cautious sip of the contents of the mug. After swishing it on his tongue, he apparently decided that he liked it and took a bigger sip. "Willing to let your little brothers go off and be in relationships. Normally, all the older siblings I have seen fight tooth and nail to keep that from happening."

"It's a different situation when it's already happened and the younger siblings are just trying to play catch up this time around." Donald assured them with a wave of his hand. "But I am going to ask that you protect both of them. Ori and Bilbo deserve more than the death and dishonor they respectively got."

"I take it that you've talked to him, then?" Thomas looked into his mug, avoiding eye contact.

Donald nodded, placing a hand on Thomas's shoulder. "He went home to his family and friends, but forever after, he felt like there as something missing. Like there was someone else inside his skin and he was removed from the situation. He went home, but he never felt like he belonged there after that. He'd loved the mountains, and for all his long life, he wasn't able to forget them."

"Yeh did him a bit of a disservice," Dwalin assured as he poked Thomas's side, grinning again as he curled away slightly. "But when I watch him watchin' yeh, and the way yeh look at him...I don' think yeh've got anythin' ta worry 'bout."

"I would say the same for you and Oliver, but there's something more in between you two. Something deeper and more familiar." Thomas thumped Dwalin's arm lightly. 

"We jus' had longer." Dwalin looked at Ori, then back to Thomas. "But I don' think that any amount o' time would be enough."

 

XxXxX

 

"So what you're saying is that that creature, Gollum, is immortal like him?" Oliver frowned. "You didn't really learn anything new, then."

William frowned, his nose wrinkling as he thought for a moment before answering. "We did learn a few things, but most of it was making sure that we all had a hold of the same information, just in case we were on different pages." 

Leaning forward when Frode shoved his homework in his uncle's direction, William nodded at his nephew and smiled once more. "He has no idea what might be done to reverse the immortality on that awful beast of a creature."

"Well..." Frode cleared his throat when everyone turned to look a him, face flushing a warm pink color at the sudden attention. 

"To destroy The Ring," he licked his bottom lip, almost hesitant to talk about the thing that had nearly gotten him killed. "We had to return it to the fires in which it was forged. That was the only thing that could destroy something of that much absolute power."

"Great," Oliver sighed, rubbing at his forehead. "Anyone know the location of a mountain that used to be the Kingdom of The Line of Durin? Surely it can't be lost to time." Seeing the put out look on Frode's face, he rushed to reassure the younger boy. 

"Sorry, really not having a go at you with that comment. Just frustrated that the world happens to be putting us in this position. That's not going to be easy to find, the location's probably been lost to time, the mountain itself might not be there anymore, th-"

"And Gollum won't be willing to let us take it from him." Frode filled in before Oliver could babble his way to shoving his foot down his throat. "I know, don't worry. I was just telling you what worked before."

Kaden and Faren walked in, followed by their mother. As Davina made a beeline for her brother and their cousins, her sons tried to sneak up behind Frode, only to be blocked by Oliver. "Don't do that when he is working on his assignments from school." At the grateful smile from Frode, Oliver shooed the older boys towards the kitchen. "Go get food, then come help him work on his math."

Groaning, the two of them trudged out of the room again, dragging their feet as they went.

Watching them go, Oliver frowned. "Has anyone heard from Gandalf or Radagast in the last couple of days?"

XxXxX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Is anyone going to kill me for this being this late? I'm sorry.
> 
> (I got kicked out of an apartment and now I don't have wifi at the house I'm in. I am sorry for not posting anything, but it's a little hard when my life is going crazy.)
> 
> Also, does anyone spot the Tintin reference? 
> 
> (As for Maddie, the random Oc -- There was a draft of this where she was Oliver's friend and she was awesome and didn't hit on him but then it wasn't working and I had to rewrite it and she became kind of evil...)


	3. But Please Don't Lose Me

"Blaise?"

Nicholas turned his head, running his fingers along Blaise's arm, tapping at the point of his pulse, then holding out his cellphone. "Have you heard from either of the wizards lately?"

Shaking his head, Blaise wrapped their fingers together, taking a deep breath as his eyes drifted towards the window, as if he were trying to make out the shape of something in the dimming sunlight outside of it. A shiver, then meeting Nicholas's eyes. 

"No, why?"

"Apparently, they've been silent for the last couple of days. Ori asked the rest of the group, none of them have spoken to them." 

Nicholas pressed a kiss to Blaise's cheek, resting their foreheads together. Blaise brushed his braid over his shoulder, then laughed when Nicholas pulled him close and dragged his knuckles over his hips, coming to rest on his waist. Fingers stealing space in the man's pockets, Nicholas grinned as he buried his face in Blaise's neck.

Blaise laughed again, less strained this time, curling one arm around Nicholas's shoulders, his other hand resting on his neck. 

"Thief."

"Well, yeah." Nicholas nipped lightly at the skin below his mouth, pressing his lips to the spot immediately after. "We should get going, we probably don't want to be travelling at night."

"Yeah, really not looking forward to what that thing will do if it finds us out at night." Blaise pressed closer to his boyfriend, wrapping his fingers in the dreadlocks that were tied back in a ponytail today. "It was terrifying enough when it attacked the cafe, it doesn't need to be here."

Nicholas smiled, kissing him once, twice, three times before they pulled apart, each grabbing the bags that they had packed and heading for the car that waited outside.

The drive to William's house was mostly silent, save for Blaise's humming.

 

As the minutes ticked away, Blaise frowned at the weather outside their car. "Nori?"

"Hmm?"

"Awful lot of fog." he turned away from the window, then saw the look on Nicholas's face. "What?"

Nicholas met his eyes, then slowed the car down, gripping the wheel tightly. "I don't know. Bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not sure what's causing it, but it feels like it did when I was about to be caught as a thief." he took a deep breath. "Like somethings about to happen. Something bad."

"So it isn't just me then, good to know." Blaise muttered, looking out the windows again, frowning. "Didn't we time it so we had plenty of day travelling to do?"

"We did."

Blaise reached over and curled his fingers into the material of Nicholas's shirt. "The sky's dark. Beyond the fog. Can't see any stars, either."

Pulling his eyes from the road for a second, Nori frowned, leaning forward to look out from the windshield. "That...There is no possible way that that can be a good thing." Taking another deep breath, he stopped the car but didn't shut it off. "Alright, how about you call someone? Anyone, really, you could even call Donald and I would be happy right now. I just want someone else to know what's going on here."

"What are you going to do?"

Unbuckling, then leaning into the backseat and rummaging for something, Nicholas grunted as the coffee holder between the seats hit him across the side as he slipped. "Something that's probably really, exceedingly, awfully stupid." He held up a flashlight and a baseball bat made of metal for Bofur to see. "I'm actually tossing in my vote that you do call my older brother, honestly. Might be the best choice here."

"I take it I'm supposed to stay in the car then?" Blaise raised his eyebrows, an indignant expression on his face. "Not a chance am I playing the damsel in distress."

Nicholas growled, then leaned across the distance between them and pressed their foreheads together. "You've also had the head situation in the last month, and I haven't. Please, so that the both of us don't possibly get eaten and destroyed, call my brother and make sure that he knows I did something stupid."

"Tell him that exactly?"

"Yeah." Nicholas grinned roguishly, kissing the tip of his boyfriend's nose. "Best way for us to get backup, letting Donald know his siblings are being idiots about something. Lock the doors behind me?"

Scoffing, Blaise pulled out his phone. "If you die, I will bring you back just to kill you again. Waited too long to find you."

"How could I not return to my lovely song?"

With that, he slipped out of the car, baseball bat poised to strike and flashlight on, lighting his way through the fog.

Blaise flicked through the numbers on his phone, chuckling under his breath, cheeks flushed. When he got to the right number, he hit dial, waiting for less than ten second before the other line was picked up. "Your brother told me to tell you that he's being an idiot."

 

XxXxX

 

Walking through the fog that had suddenly surrounded the car, Nicholas shivered.

The fog was warm, feeling almost like fire as it brushed across his skin, reminding him of a forge and blacksmiths. The air was almost a choking heat as he breathed, but it wasn't quite as warm as dragon's fire.

The sound of footsteps made him pause, raising the baseball bat higher.

"Who's there?" he called, then winced. "Yes, great, horror movies, people end up dead because of that exact line."

"I can promise," came a voice from ahead of him, almost rusty sounding, like something old that hadn't seen the light of day for a long time. "That I will not be the cause of your death, Once-Dwarf."

Falling into a steadier stance, just in case he had to fend someone off, Nicholas peered through the fog, watching as a shadow stepped steadily closer to him, pausing every few steps, like the person needed to breathe. "That still doesn't answer the question of who you are."

"You and I had very little interaction when I was whole." came the voice again, "I would think that you may not remember who I was."

A man stepped out of the fog, eyes dark, hair lank and unwashed, skin sallow. With almost a wheeze of breath, he stopped moving, swaying slightly where he stood. "After the fall of Sauron, I was never quite whole again."

"I've heard stories of Sauron and that whole thing from Fr-" Nicholas cut himself off, jaw dropping. "There's no way you're who I think you are."

A dry laugh, some more wheezing, then the wizened man in front of him bared his teeth in what may have been an attempted smile. "And who might you think I am?"

When Nicholas didn't answer, the man stood a little straighter, raising his arms from where they hung, fingers clutched around a book. "Fix this mess. Get that wretched creature away from the Arkenstone, there is much danger in that damnable stone being in his grasp."

Nicholas tucked the bat beneath his arm, taking the book from the man. "Why are you interested in this stopping? How the hell does it benefit you?"

"It would allow for my release from the torment I live in." he hissed, coughing in such a way that Nicholas could almost hear his lungs falling apart. "I live a shade of the life I once knew. Fix this."

Taking a step back, Nicholas frowned, then looked at the book. "Am I right in thinking that you're-"

The man was gone, as was the fog, leaving Nicholas, the book, and the car with Blaise still sitting in it, on the road alone.

"-Saruman?"

Walking back to the car, then knocking on the window, Nicholas shuddered as he looked back at the spot the man had stood. The pavement seemed to be, either because of the position of the sun or Nicholas seeing things, stained darker in that one place.

"You're alright!" Blaise grinned as Nicholas got back into his seat, reaching a hand across to his boyfriend and wrapping their hands together. "It's alright Donald, he's alive. By the look on his face, he might need everyone in the same room so that he can tell us all just what happened. We'll be there in a few minutes."

 

"Wait, so what happened?" Oliver stared at his brother, Nicholas shifting from foot to foot as he tried to calm down after the weird encounter on the road.

Blaise shrugged, wrapping his hand around Nicholas's and smiling encouragingly at him. "He walked away from the car, into the weird fog around it, the popped back up out of it when it cleared. He was holding this book," he pulled it from his lap and held it out to Oliver, allowing the younger man to take it. "And seemed completely out of it."

"I think it was Saruman." Nicholas muttered, resting his forehead against Blaise's shoulder. "I only met him the once and then we were running off because we wanted to get the hell out of there."

"There being...?" Frode prompted, taking the book from Oliver and flipping through it carefully.

Nicholas rolled his neck, just enough to be able to look at the boy. "Rivendell. We were hosted there as a stop on our journey."

"Seems to be a recurring theme when a hobbit goes on an adventure." Frode muttered, tracing his fingers over the dark ink on the pages in front of him. "Stop in Rivendell for a while, meet some of the elves of Mirkwood, meet some dwarves and become, at the very least, companions of them."

"What elves did you meet?" Blaise raised an eyebrow, stroking his fingers across Nicholas's hand. "What dwarves?"

"I met Legolas, son of Thranduil. I also met Gimli and Bombur and Gloin."

At the name of the Elven king, several of the men in the room grumbled and glared at something other than the fourteen year old who had said it, lest he get the idea that they were mad at him.

In the background, William skirted around Thomas, keeping an eye on Frode as he passed by his nephew. With a confused look, 

Thomas watched him leave the room, then smacked Demetrius's arm when he muttered something.

Buckley, grinning and holding a bowl of soup that he set down in front of Frode, chuckled. "I remember. You were the little one that had to take the ring to be destroyed. And then there were stories of your friends interruptin' the secret meetin' of the council."

"Yeah!" Frode laughed at that, setting the book aside for safety as he pulled his chair closer to the table. "Sam, Merry, and Pippin all decided to follow along and crash the meeting because Sam refused to let me go alone. In much the same way that he was dragged into it in the first place, he followed along."

Nicholas muffled his laughter in Blaise's shoulder. "Wait, so both you and your uncle were pretty much dragged into your adventures?"

"What do you mean?"

Sitting up, Nicholas grinned. "Your uncle fainted at the thought of being incinerated by a dragon. He refused to come with us, but then he came running down the road, the contract flying like a flag behind him, shouting for us to stop. It may have been the funniest thing I ever have seen, in either that life or this."

Frode dissolved into giggles as stared at Nicholas. "I would have fainted too! Incineration is a terrifying thought."

"To be fair, we might have sprung the idea on him a little suddenly." Nicholas whispered almost too quiet for anyone outside the four of them to hear. "We all showed up at his door and then he opened it and suddenly there were dwarves and he had no idea what to do with the lot of us. We cleaned out his pantry, and he kept worrying about his plates and his cups and his knives and forks."

Frode gave a loud snorting laugh, covering his mouth in embarrassment, then laughing even more when he realized that 

Nicholas was waiting for him to. "You worried him over the state of his dishes!"

Looking over at the door to the kitchen where William was, Blaise grinned, nudging Nicholas's arm. "Blunt the knives..."

"Bend the forks."

Kaden and Faran looked up from where they were sitting in the corner with their uncle. "Mash the bottles!"

"NO!" William called from the kitchen, shortly after appearing in the doorway. "There is to be none of your singing and tossing about of my kitchenware this time, thank you!" With that said, he disappeared back through the door.

Faran stood, dislodging his brother from his arm. "Burn the corks?" he called after the former Hobbit retreated.

"I said no!" William shouted back, "And know that if you try anyways, I will retaliate!"

Blaise chuckled, looking over at Frode as he dissolved into a fit of giggles that had him clutching at the edge of the table. 

Leaning into Nicholas's side, he pressed up against his ear. "I'm going to go convince Bilbo that we've better manners this time."

Nicholas nodded, curling their fingers together for a moment before letting go.

 

XxXxX

 

"William?"

"Over here," William peeked over the door to the fridge, taking a step back with his arms full of ingredients for what looked like a pastry of some kind. "Is there something wrong?"

Blaise rubbed at the back of his neck, a sheepish grin on his face. "I just wanted to make sure you knew we wouldn't be doing the same thing as last time. Well, I make no guarantees about Kaden and Faran, but I don't think anyone else would join in. And the lads would likely only be doing it to entertain the little one, from what I remember of them. There's some diff-"

"I know." William grinned at him, setting the stuff on the counter before turning around and calling for Buckley. Tucking the curls that were swinging in his eyes back, he shrugged. "Have you been noticing that you're gaining your accent back? When we first met, it was more of a southern accent, as was your brothers," here he paused, helping Buckley seperate out the ingredients and start mixing them together. "You two have started sounding like dwarves of Erebor again."

Just then, the doorbell rang and the entire group of people gathered in the living room went silent.

William's smile grew, a fond twist to his lips making him look oddly pleased with something. Turning from his current task, he called out into the living room, "Would somebody please let him in?"

A few seconds later, they heard the door open, and shortly after that, Smaug walked into William Bernherdt's kitchen.

"I am to assume I can be of some help in here?" Smaug bent down slightly to avoid the top of the door frame, the wood brushing the black curls the tumbled down around his ears. "I would prefer to help rather than be stared at by the very beings I once sought to destroy."

Bandages peeked up over the collar of his shirt, as well as a sling hanging around his neck and holding his left arm still. The leather jacket he had previously favored was gone, shredded by Gollum when he had attempted to use it as a layer between the claws and his own skin.

Blaise looked him up and down. "...You're less scary now."

"I was hoping for that effect, yes." Smaug grinned, a sly look in his eyes. "I do not wish for you and your family to be terrified beyond reason of me."

"It seems to be working, even if nothing else right now is." Blaise's commonly seen grin returned full force then as he stepped past the former dragon. "William, is it alright if I make something as well?"

The man nodded, attention already focused back on the food he was working on.

"C'mon," Blaise motioned for Smaug to follow him, shrugging when yellow eyes looked puzzled. "I have a feeling that no one ever taught you to make stuffed pastries."

"...Stuffed with what?" Smaug asked hesitantly, almost as if he were afraid of the answer.

Blaise laughed, shrugging. "We'll see. Sometimes it's cheese, sometimes it's fruit, you can do plenty with the dough once you have it mixed together."

Smaug watched him carefully as he pulled out the ingredients. "Is the dough hard to make?"

"If you don't know how, it seems like it is. This is one of the first things I ever learned how to make from my mum." Blaise paused to give Smaug a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I think that even with one hand you'll be able to help me make several batches of it. It makes good breakfasts for those of us who have to leave early in the morning."

"I do worry that Frode might not be getting enough fruits in his diet." William called from across the kitchen.

Blaise held out his hands, as if he were saying 'What can you do?' with just the simple gesture. "You heard the man. Fruits and veggies for the teenagers. I think we may also have to force feed them to Kaden and Faran."

"If they're anything like how they used to be," William spoke again, wiping his hands off on a towel. "Then there isn't a need for force feeding. Just put the food near them and stand back when they catch wind of it."

Smaug watched carefully as Blaise blended the ingredients together deftly, the former dwarf paying very little attention to what his hands were doing. When the smaller man let the dough sit for a minute, Smaug grabbed another bowl and copied what he had seen, a peaceful look on his face as he got completely absorbed in the simple act of mixing things together to actually create something instead of destroying everything.

Blaise leaned around Smaug so that he could make eye contact with William. "I think the same could be said for my brother back then, especially if you put him in charge of the cooking. Remember when we holed up with the elves for a time?"

"Oh heavens," William's grin grew even wider. "Ori would not touch the greens, Dori kept trying to get everyone to eat them because it was good for them, Kili and Fili kept throwing things...Honestly, it's a wonder we even got any help from them in the first place."

"Noticin' that there's little mention of how Dwalin and Thorin stood around the edges and tried to stare the elves down with arms crossed over their chests." Blaise laughed, Smaug turning to look at the both of them.

"I take it you're speaking of the adventure that occurred before you ran into me?"

William nodded, nudging the full baking tray towards Buckley, then turning to wash his hands. "We are, yes. We traveled many miles, and the road that lay before us was so very different from home."

"And now the road continues one, like we never actually left it in the first place." Blaise nudged Smaug back to working on the pastries.

"Maybe we never did." Smaug muttered.

 

XxXxX

 

Nicholas watched the door to the kitchen nervously, fingers twisting together the longer his boyfriend was out of his sight.

"-olas?"

With a dumbstruck look on his face, he turned towards the voice, licking absently at his lips. "Huh?"

"Buckley was asking if you were alright, and then I tried catching your attention and you weren't responding." Oliver explained quietly to his brother, then tilting his head to the side. "If you really need to be watching him, we all kind of understand."

"Sorry," Nicholas grinned, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "I guess I just..." he sighed heavily, then shook his head. "Just not quite focused right now. I think it might be the encounter with, of all people, Saruman. I mean, what the hell? I guess it's just making me feel like I need to protect him and keep him in sight, because that's the best way to-"

He cut himself off, then made a vague gesture yet complicated gesture that involved his shoulders almost jumping up and down and his hands waving near his face.

Oliver smiled at him, then motioned at the kitchen. "We do understand, you know. We're involved in this as much as you are, and we're likely to just roll with it if you stop in the middle of a sentence to go find him and make sure that he's alive."

"It feels too early to be this dependent on him though, this reliant on his existence." Nicholas ran a hand through the tangle of dreadlocks on his head, tugging slightly to free his hand after doing so. "And I don't know if it's past me fighting against current me, or maybe it's current me trying to have what past me had and both of them trying to figure out things and I-"

Donald cleared his throat.

When both of his younger brothers were looking at him, he smiled over the edge of his mug at them. "Do you still love him? Even if this had nothing to do with your past connection with him, would you still love him?"

There was a moment of silence before any of them even breathed, but then Nicholas nodded, seeming to gain confidence the longer it was between his movement and no one arguing against it.

"Yes." he said, then licked his lips again. "Yes I do. Even if you take Nori and Bofur out of it, he's still the one I want to be with."

"Well," Donald raised his eyebrows smugly, taking a sip of his tea. "There's your answer. I believe it may have assured his family as well."

At his brother's confused look, Donald pointed his pinky at Byron, who was looking at the three of them from his spot on the couch. Noticing he was caught, the man grunted and shrugged, then turned away, muttering something under his breath.

Nicholas's cheeks turned a flushed red color as he met his brother's eyes, holding his gaze for a moment before nodding once. 

"It's true though. I think that even without our past tying us together, I'd still find him beautiful. I'd still find him to be someone I'd want to be around. He's intelligent, he's funny, he's charming, he's-"

"Standing right behind his boyfriend and slowly turning pink because this is the first time he's heard you say such things?"

Jumping almost out of his skin, Nicholas tilted his head back, eyes wide, to come face to face with Blaise. "Hullo. You going to continue ta compliment me?" The pink color on the apples of his cheeks nicely complimented the flush of Nicholas's, both men smiling wider the longer they looked at each other.

Nicholas's grin widened even more as he tugged Blaise's face down by his hair, nuzzling at his jaw for a moment before pressing small kisses to his cheeks and lips. "Possibly. Might have to move to a bedroom if that's what's going to happen though, there's small eyes about, wouldn't do to ruin their innocence."

"Ah," Blaise cleared his throat, looking around for a moment to find Frode. "That's true enough."

Oliver snorted into his mug, then started coughing as he tried to get the tea he'd inhaled out of his sinuses. Donald patted his back carefully, then turned to the two sitting across from him. "Do I need to go replace Blaise in the kitchen, or is Buckley already on it?"

"Smaug might be, actually." Blaise leaned down until he could wrap his arms around Nicholas's shoulders, resting his chin in the crook of his boyfriend's neck. "Which is beyond weird to me still."

"I think it's weird for everyone." Donald muttered, standing with his empty mug. "I am, however, going to scrounge up more tea. Oliver?"

Oliver nodded, then followed his older brother away from the chairs and into the kitchen.

Letting go of Nicholas, Blaise moved to the front of his chair, dragging another so that their knees touched when he sat down. 

"So you're in love with me, huh?"

"I-" Nicholas covered his face, cheeks flushing red again. "Yes."

Blaise laughed, wrapping his hands around Nicholas's wrists. "Never be afraid that I don't hold you in the same regard." Leaning forward, he kissed the man's nose. "I'm in love with you too, y'know."

Knocking their foreheads together, Nicholas let out a shaky breath. "Oh, good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry this took so long, but I am in a house with no wifi and someone who is hazardous to my mental health.

**Author's Note:**

> So I am sorry that this hasn't been up for a while, but I was kind of going crazy. I still am, but I feel better enough to work on this for a while. I've got about a third of the next chapter written.


End file.
